Undoubtedly, in the digital era, a person spends a significant portion of their time connected to the internet, whether for entertainment or work. According to data from a study conducted by Hootsuite and We Are Social for the Digital 2020 report from the World Economic Forum, the global average is 6 hours and 43 minutes.
In this context, the internet becomes the ideal place for brands to connect with consumers: programmatic advertising, video displays, email marketing campaigns, adwords, among others, all while they carry out their home office tasks, browse social networks, watch a video on YouTube, use apps, or play games via streaming.
This is part of the power of digital marketing and its influence from the online world to the physical space, where everything is immediate and measurable. With the emergence of the internet in the late 1980s, the launch of the Yahoo! search engine in 1995, and the mobile phone in 1996, marketing began taking its first steps towards digitization.
This trend was further accelerated with the arrival of Google in 1998 and the launch of its Adwords program and later with Google Analytics, which changed the way online advertising was done and democratized web analytics.
The birth of Facebook in 2004 and the commercialization of the first smartphone in 2007 led to the development of mobile marketing and, years later, to the emergence of digital marketing as a cutting-edge tool and technique that revolutionized the art of sales through the internet.
Its manifestations can be found in blogs, podcasts, streaming platforms, social networks, mobile applications, gifs, stickers, even in so-called influencers and emerging platforms like TikTok and ClubHouse. All of them seek to capture the consumer's attention, understand their buying habits, and provide tips to make "better" decisions and captivate them.
Increased investment to face the new normal
This year, organizations will bet on digital marketing for the development of their business strategies. According to the "Media AD Spend 2020-2021 Advertisers' Expectations Study" by IAB, it is expected that 40% of companies will increase their advertising budget compared to 2020, and only 20% of companies expect to make additional cuts. In addition, 62% of surveyed companies plan to increase their investment in digital channels in 2021.
In 2020, the Latin American industry of business and industrial exhibitions had to cancel in-person events and resort to online platforms to communicate trade shows and reach users remotely through email marketing, video conferences, webinars, mixed reality tools (virtual and augmented), virtual tours using avatars, among other strategies.
In the political sphere, different actors turned to digital communication agencies to disseminate their strategies and social actions through videos, animated gifs, stories, and infographics to be spread across all platforms available to them.
Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, analytics, and social listening will allow the creation of new models and useful solutions to segment the audience and create personalized content to enhance the user experience.
Companies dedicated to marketing should follow the advice of Seth Godin, one of the most important theorists of the subject in the 21st century: "Today's marketing is no longer about the product you make, but about the stories you tell," making digital storytelling one of the best ways to do it.
Esther Riveroll, Founder and CEO of Alldatum Business
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